Network Topology

A network topology is defined as a physical layout of a computer network in which two or more computer nodes are connected to each other. It provides a platform to interconnect computer networks and topology refer as a process that describes how the data or information is transmitted between nodes (Al-Sultan, Al-Doori, Al-Bayatti, & Zedan 2014). The main purpose of this report is to describe the various kinds of network topologies and their advantages and disadvantages. There are mainly two types of network topologies used in information technology, for example, physical and logical. Physical topology emphasizes two or more communicating devices with nodes and the logical topology focuses on the shape of the data transmission process.

There are many types of network topologies used in computer systems which are described below:

• Bus topology
• Ring topology
• STAR topology
• MESH topology
• TREE topology
• HYBRID topology

Topology	Architecture	Routing methods Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Complexity	Expansion	Reliability	cost	Cabling concerns	Security
Star	In this type of process, the nodes of the network are interconnected to a main central node.	In which all data transfer by the central network system	Very simple and easy	For connection, a new computer is required	More reliable	More costly	Uses twisted pair data cables	DOS attack
Bus	In this type of topology, only a single bus is used to connect two or more nodes	One computer device transfer data at a time.	Very simplest for the LAN	To add other peripheral devices people should shut down the devices and remove all data cables	Less reliability	Very cheap	A single cable is used	Less secure
Ring	In which each computer node is connected with two branches	Data is transferred into only one direction	Used for LANs	The connection between node must be removed to add computer system	Large reliability	More expansive	Needs numbers of data  cables	Less secure
Mesh	In this type of topologies minimum, two nodes are connected with each other in different paths	Can be used for long distance communication	Used for WANs	Connection systems make combining various types of networks	Troubleshooting is more difficult in this process	Very expensive	Cabling depends upon the type of network devices	More secure

There are various kinds of advantages and disadvantages of network topologies which are described below:

Figure: network topologies

(Source: Diebold, & Y?lmaz, 2014)

• It is very less in cost
• Fewer data cables are required
• Very cheap to understand
• Very easy to connect two or more cables (Betzel, Gu, Medaglia, Pasqualetti, & Bassett, 2016).

• If any cable fails then the whole computer network also fails
• Performance can be decreased if any traffic signals occur
• The lengths of wires are very limited
• Very slow process (Diebold, & Y?lmaz, 2014).

• The communication system is not affected by any malware signals
• Easy to install and expand
• Take less time during the configuration process
• Very easy for implementation

Disadvantages

• Troubleshooting is very complex in this topology
• Adding and removing the devices distributes the network activity
• One computer depend upon another network
• Very limited (Gal, et al., 2017).

• This is a robust process
• The fault is diagnosed very easily
• More secure and private
• Reduced distortion and other losses

Disadvantages

• Installation is very difficult
• The costs of data cables are very high
• Numbers of connecting wires are needed
• Configuration is very difficult

• Extension of star and bus network topologies
• Very easy to manage
• Can be used for error detection
• Expansion of nodes is very easy

• Very costly
• For large networks, the maintenance is very complex
• If the central node fails then the whole network also fails
• Heavily cabled

There are different types of network devices are used during the network topologies that are operated on the OSI model layer. Following kinds of devices are used:

• Routers
• Hubs
• Switches
• Network interface card

It is defined as a network device which is used to form the routing of signals from one device to another. It is operated in the field of OSI model and also called as network layer device that generally transfers data packets from one network to another. In router every packet have a unique IP address that makes it very simple for the process of routing to send data from one location to another (Toju, Guimarães, Olesen, & Thompson 2015).

Figure: Router

(Source: Toju, et al., 2015)

A network hub is a kind of computer device which is utilized to interconnect two or more network hosts at a time. The main application of the hub in the communication system is that it can be used for data transfer and data is sent in the form of packets. It is very less secure due to which user’s personal data can be lost.

Figure: Hub

(Source: Toju, et al., 2015)

This type of network device is used at the time of data-link that is a 2^nd layer in the OSI model and the main purpose of this device is to identify the MAC address of the computer system. Moreover, the switch is a physical layer which is developed to produce the connection between two or more peripheral devices.

Figure: Switch

(Source: Toju, et al., 2015)

Device	Hub	Switch
Layer	Physical layer	Data link layer
Function	To interconnect a network of the private computer together	To interconnect multiple computers at a time
Data transmission form	Electrical signals	Frame and packets
Ports	4/12	24/48

TCP model is a very common type of network protocol which is used in all internet operations but it does not use all the layers of the OSI model. In which the host to host layer is equivalent to the OSI layer and the application layer is very similar to the 5, 6, and 7 OSI layer.

Figure: TCP Vs OSI model

(Source: Diebold, & Y?lmaz, 2014)

OSI is defined as a network protocol which is an independent process that provides communication between the network and the consumers. It follows the vertical approach but the TCP model use a horizontal approach (Liu, Pellegrini, & Wang, 2014).

Figure: the difference between OSI and TCP/IP model

(Source: Diebold, & Y?lmaz, 2014)

 In which the three upper layers such as application, presentation, and session map to the application layer of TCP/IP. The bottom layer of OSI model (physical and data link) are mapped with the network access layer of TCP/IP with the help of internet and the network layer is similar to the IP layer of TCP (Shine, Koyejo, & Poldrack, 2016). People can use the TCP/IP model in their network system because it has the ability to reduce the security-related issues and threats and it is more effective rather than OSI.

References

Al-Sultan, S., Al-Doori, M. M., Al-Bayatti, A. H., & Zedan, H. (2014). A comprehensive survey on vehicular ad hoc network. Journal of network and computer applications, 37(4), 380-392.

Betzel, R. F., Gu, S., Medaglia, J. D., Pasqualetti, F., & Bassett, D. S. (2016). Optimally controlling the human connectome: the role of network topology. Scientific reports, 6(2), 30770.

Diebold, F. X., & Y?lmaz, K. (2014). On the network topology of variance decompositions: Measuring the connectedness of financial firms. Journal of Econometrics, 182(1), 119-134.

Gal, E., London, M., Globerson, A., Ramaswamy, S., Reimann, M. W., Muller, E., … & Segev, I. (2017). Rich cell-type-specific network topology in neocortical microcircuitry. Nature Neuroscience, 20(7), 1004.

Liu, W., Pellegrini, M., & Wang, X. (2014). Detecting communities based on network topology. Scientific reports, 4, 5739.

Shine, J. M., Koyejo, O., & Poldrack, R. A. (2016). Temporal metastases are associated with differential patterns of time-resolved connectivity, network topology, and attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(35), 9888-9891.

Toju, H., Guimarães, P. R., Olesen, J. M., & Thompson, J. N. (2015). Below-ground plant–fungus network topology is not congruent with above-ground plant-animal network topology. Science advances, 1(9), e1500291.